Posted
by
CmdrTaco
on Friday August 21, 2009 @07:13PM
from the data-goes-in-here dept.

Slatterz writes "Logitech has introduced new mice that use two lasers rather than one to work on a variety of previously unusable surfaces. The first laser picks out imperfections in the surface of a tabletop while the second laser focuses on microscopic imperfections highlighted and uses those to direct the cursor. The technique, dubbed dark field microscopy, allows mice to be used on almost any surface, including glass (as long as it is more than 4mm thick)."

also, it doesn't have shit to do with using "two lasers", the story writer at PC Authority is just retarded. In addition, if I might editorialize, is this really necessary? How hard is it to just grab a piece of paper or something and use that, or, GASP, use a mousepad! What's Logitech going to come out with next, a raman scattering microscopy, mid-infrared quantum cascade utilizing wireless mouse, for those times when you simply must do your mousing on an atomically pure, sub-angstrom microroughness telescope mirror in a class 1 cleanroom? cmon now.

We are delighted to hear of your most recent mouse developments. For too long has there been a line of segregation between those who work inside the office, and those that work outside. Before down, we only understood the concept of Internet time-wasting (an oft mentioned topic on Slashdot) in theory. Finally, we will get to surf porn at work and play flash games, with the same freedoms are everyone.

For all the things they've been able to get mice to track on, it still sucks to move a mouse on anything other than an engineered mousing surface. This new sensor may be a good feature for notebook mice that will be used on who-knows-what, but buying a premium gaming mouse for it's ability to track on crappy surfaces makes about as much sense as buying a Formula One car for its off-road handling.

And if anyone says "but it's better!": Today's well-made mice track fantastically well on a proper surface. They're already, for practical purposes, perfect. Yes, admittedly, there are people whose Logitech or Microsoft mice track poorly. But those people fall into two groups: (a) those who aren't using a pad at all, and (b) those who are using a horrible made-when-men-were-men-and-mice-had-balls pad they had lying around. Logitech and Microsoft would be better off just throwing in a proper mouse pad—and there are some excellent, relatively cheap cloth pads—than endlessly making slightly better sensors just so that people's cursors jump a bit less while they're scraping their mice back and forth on horrible surfaces.

(And if Microsoft and Logitech had half as much innovation in materials as they do in optics, their mice would move like air hockey pucks by now.)

Unless in hospital or prison where would your average Slashdot reader get syphilis from?
Now nterococcus faecium (VRE), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa might be on their keyboards and be fun to detect.